The city that is never left

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Namaste. Before we begin, take a breath with us. In through the nose. And slowly out.

This is the first sitting of our series on Kashi Vishwanath. Over these episodes we will walk into one of the oldest living cities on earth, and into the temple at its heart. We will go down to the river, meet the household of gods and guardians who live around the temple, hear how the building came to stand as it does, and spend one full day inside it, from the first lamp to the last. Today we start with a single question. People say that Shiva never leaves Kashi. Where does that idea come from?

Let us go to the books first.

The Skanda Purana has a long section devoted only to this city. It is called the Kashi Khanda. In it, Kashi is given many names. One of them is Anandavana, the forest of bliss. Another is Varanasi, because the city sits between two small rivers, the Varuna to the north and the Assi to the south. But the name we want today is a quieter one. The Kashi Khanda calls this place Avimukta.

Before we open that name, a word about the name Kashi itself. It is usually explained as coming from a root that means to shine, so Kashi is often called the city of light. That is why our series carries that title. Banaras is the name most people use in daily speech, and you will hear all three names, Kashi, Varanasi and Banaras, in a single conversation on the ghats. Nobody minds. They are all names for the same beloved place.

Mukta means released, let go. Avimukta means the place that is never let go. The Purana says that Shiva and Parvati never leave this ground, not even for a moment. That is where the saying comes from. When an old woman in a Banaras lane tells you "Baba kahin nahin jaate", she means that Baba, the way Kashi lovingly names Shiva, never goes anywhere. In her own words, she is repeating something the Purana said long ago.

It is worth staying with that name for a moment. Most of us think of holy places as places we travel to, and then leave. We go, we pray, we come home. The Kashi Khanda turns this around. In its telling, the city is the one that stays. The pilgrim comes and goes. Shiva remains. People in Kashi carry that feeling into ordinary life. They will tell you they are only guests in Baba's city, and the host is always at home.

Now, why is Shiva worshipped here as a jyotirlinga, a place where Shiva is worshipped as a pillar of light? For that we turn to the Shiva Purana.

In its first part, the Vidyeshvara Samhita, the Purana tells of a time when Brahma and Vishnu disagreed about which of them was greater. Between them rose a pillar of fire with no beginning and no end. Vishnu went down to find its base. Brahma went up to find its top. Neither could reach the end. The Purana presents this pillar as a form of Shiva beyond all measure. Jyoti means light. A jyotirlinga is a place where that light is remembered and worshipped.

Later, in the Kotirudra Samhita, the Shiva Purana lists twelve such places across India. The same list is kept in a short hymn that many families know by heart, the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotra, which tradition attributes to Adi Shankaracharya. In its line on this city, the hymn names Vishvesha in Varanasi. If you would like to hear that line in Sanskrit, please learn it from a teacher or an elder in your family, who can say it the way it should be said.

Vishvesha, Vishveshvara, Vishwanath. All three mean the same thing: the lord of the whole universe. So the name of the temple is also a statement. The one who is worshipped in this small city is the lord of everything. There is something tender in that. The lord of the universe has chosen a crowded riverside town, with its bells and its cows and its narrow lanes, as the place he will not leave.

Let us leave the books for a moment and stand in the lane.

If you have been to Kashi, you know the walk. The lanes are narrow. A cow is resting where you want to step. A shop is selling brass lotas, the small water vessels pilgrims carry, and red thread. Somebody is carrying a basket of marigolds on their head. A boy on a bicycle rings his bell and somehow finds a way through. Then, at a turn, the crowd thickens and you hear the temple bells.

People around you are holding small offerings. A lota of Ganga water. A few bel leaves. A garland. Some are saying the name of Shiva under their breath. Some are quiet. An elderly man is being helped along by his grandson. Everyone is going the same way.

The temple you enter today is not very large. Its present building was raised in 1780 by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, a queen who repaired and built temples and ghats in many parts of India. About fifty years later, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab gave gold to cover the shikhara and dome. That is why many people in Banaras still call it the golden temple. The temple trust's own history records both gifts.

The city is far older than the building. Kashi is named in very old texts, and pilgrims have been coming here for more centuries than anyone can count with certainty. The temple has been rebuilt more than once, and we will hear that story with care in a later episode. What has stayed constant is the worship. Each day the temple trust holds a series of aartis, the worship with lamps, beginning with the Mangala aarti before dawn and ending with the Shayan aarti at night. One of them, the Saptarishi aarti in the evening, is performed by seven priests together, remembering the seven great sages.

There is one more thing the Kashi Khanda says that shapes how people feel about this city. It speaks of Manikarnika, the ghat, or riverside steps, where cremations take place day and night. The Purana says that in Kashi, Shiva himself gives the Taraka mantra, the mantra that carries one across, to those who leave their bodies here. This is why, for centuries, elderly people have come to live out their last years in Kashi. For them, this is no sad journey. They speak of it as a homecoming.

You will hear many stories in Kashi about how this happens. Some families say it is whispered in the right ear. Some say it is simply the grace of the place. These are local traditions, told lovingly, and they differ from family to family. We share them as they are told, without saying one is more correct than another.

If you ever sit for a while near Manikarnika, you may notice how calm it is. Families come and go. Wood is stacked. The river moves past. Life in the lanes above goes on. People in Kashi have lived beside this ghat for so long that they speak of it gently, the way one speaks of an old neighbour.

And here is one small local tradition that we love. In Kashi they say Shiva is the king of the city, but the one who feeds the city is Mother Annapurna, whose temple stands just a few steps from Vishwanath. Many pilgrims visit her right after Vishwanath's darshan, the moment of seeing and being seen by the deity. The idea is gentle and very Indian. In a home, the father may be the head, but no one eats until the mother serves.

We will meet Annapurna again later in this series, along with the others who, in Kashi's own telling, keep this city's household running.

So let us gather what we heard today.

The Skanda Purana's Kashi Khanda calls this city Avimukta, the place Shiva never lets go. The Shiva Purana tells of the pillar of light and lists Varanasi among the twelve jyotirlingas, where Shiva is worshipped as Vishwanath, lord of the universe. The present temple was built by Ahilyabai Holkar in 1780 and later covered in gold given by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. And the people of Kashi keep their own tender traditions, about Manikarnika and about Annapurna, that bring the Puranas into daily life.

One thing to take with you. Avimukta means never let go. Tomorrow morning, before your day begins, think of one place, one person, or one good habit that you do not want to let go of. Hold it in your mind for the length of one slow breath. That is all.

In the next episode we go down to the river, to Dashashwamedh Ghat, and hear what the Kashi Khanda says about how the ghat got its name.

Keep going

• Listen: The city that is never left
• Next: Dashashwamedh: the ghat of ten sacrifices
• हिन्दी में पढ़ें
• All episodes of Kashi Vishwanath: the city of light